Immersion

I decided to play Volume 1 of the Mark Levinson Acoustic Recording Series. It's been a long time between playings (LP, 33.3 RPM, super quiet vinyl, ca. late 1970s). This is a recording of choral and organ works in a church (?) in an unspecified location.

Cue the stylus, drop it, rush to my listening spot, remove muting and....Immersion. Immediately. 

Not only was the organ music here in my room, but the entire space was here as well. The people, music, hall, etc... all the cues that inform that "live" experience were there. They were inseparable from the notes played.

I attend symphonies and opera quite regularly. I find live performances in this sort of environment (in my case, the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House) very pleasing and "natural" (whatever this means).

It is rare to find this quality in studio-generated music. By its very nature it is more processed. I find some recorded live performances such as the Allman Bros Live at Fillmont, a few Pink Floyd concerts, "The Wall" album (emotional environment), and a few recordings made in the Bayreuth Festspielhouse get close to capturing the environment where the audience and hall are perceived as part of the environment. It is thrilling to listen to sounds created by physical instruments in an environment expressly designed for that reason -  in my own room. 

I also enjoy studio created music.

And I understand that recorded music such as the Levinson albums could deliver the environment in this recording via any medium. Recording and processing are key, not the delivery vehicle.

I am grateful that I have audio equipment that allows me to experience this immersion. It provides great pleasure.

I am definitely biased toward blended, atmospheric, warm sounding performances. My hearing only extends to 6KHz, even as a 20 something. Perhaps I am physically incapable of experiencing "detail", as it seems to be defined by audio circles.

Each of us creates our own world through our sensory connection to it (with assistance from internal filtering).

I get thrills from Immersion.